Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	apostle_n	gospel_n	paul_n	2,610	5	6.3520	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A72989	The rose, and lily Delivered at the lecture, in Ashby de-la-zouch in the county of Leicester. By William Parks, Master of Arts, and curat of Chelaston in the county of Derby.	Parks, William, curat of Chelaston.	1640 (1640)	STC 19303.3; ESTC S124820	66,672	201

great deale of time Ans Not so much time as many usually spend in vaine Tautologies and idle repetitions which stand like ciphers to fill up empty places in their Sermons Ob. But it would please better without them Ans Indeed if a Lecturer were to live like the poore and the blind meerely by collection then happily hee must preach to please his good Masters or else hee would loose a great part of his living But Sermons are not to be made as some Commaedians made their Playes Populo ut placerent quas fecissent fabulas h Terence And yet for ought I know Sermons with Latin in them may please as well and better as those without it Ob. But S. Austin himselfe bids not to hearken what i Epist 18. contra Petil. lib. Rogatus Donatus vincentius Hylary Ambrose sayth Ans but what sayth the Lord But S. Augustines purpose is not k Hooker Eccl. Pol. lib. 2.6 7. I thinke when he bids us not to heare men that we should stop our eares against his owne exhortation and therefore he cannot meane simply that audience should be denyed unto men but either if men speake one thing and God another then he not they is to be obeyed or if they both speake one thing then also mans speech is unworthy of hearing not simply but in comparison But Lastly Ob. it may be objected the Scriptures of themselves are sufficent for salvation and justification And therefore there is no use of Fathers in Sermons Ans It is true that the Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation but such is the dulnes of our understanding that we cannot understand the difficult places of it without an interpretor I confesse I had rather light my dim Lamp at their lights and take an interpretation from them then from many moderne writers and will alwayes use them and dispise new non licensed Pamphlets that may breed faction and irregularity in the hearers So that Fathers are not such a Bugbeare but a man may looke on them without frighting and borrow their golden sentences as the Israelites did borrow from the Aegiptians Iewells of Silver and Iewells of Gold Which may appeare by example reason and Scripture By example thus All the Fathers and almost all moderne writers doe it even they themselves that deny it will use moderne writers how is Calvin urged in defence of usury and against Church government and then why may not we cite the Fathers By reason thus If it bee lawfull to read them it is lawfull to cite them l Doctor West faling in his Sermon preached at Oxford Anno. 1582. and if it be lawfull to read later writers which I know none that doth deny then why not them except they may bee read for their manner of tractation and not for their matter By Scripture thus The Apostles and our Saviour too bring sentences of the Prophets in the new Testament which were interpretors of the Law and why may not wee bring sentences of the fathers which are interpretors of the Gospell Nay S. Paul brings sentences from the Poets viz. from Aratus m Acts 17.28 Menander n 1 Cor. 15.33 and Epimenides o Tit. 1.12 so that wee may rob the prophane Poets of their ornaments p Aret. loc com de Lect. Ethin and consecrate them to Christ much more may we take sentences from the holy Fathers Besides there are Hebrew and Syriack words used in the new Testament without interpreting as Anathema Maranatha Hosanna and Cephas which might occasion Optatus Milivitanus for ought I know to thinke Peter g Lib 2. contra Parme. to bee the head of the Church hee thinking it to be a Greeke word and derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a head when as it is a Sirack word and signifyes a stone but there can bee no danger in any mistake in urging sentences of the Fathers being interpreted So that though we doe not bring any grounds of faith from them yet it is lawfull and fitting to urge them First for interpretation of hard Texts Secondly for illustration Thirdly for confutation of errors as our Saviour quotes r Mat 23. the Pharisees Fourthly for instances and. Fiftly we may use them comparatively and bring the sayings and examples of Heathen to shame Christians I had thought to have sayd more but fearing least my porch should be too big for my house that this book should be like the City Minda with too great gates I conclude wishing thee and all good Christians to doe that that shall tend to the glory of God and the peace of the Church Farewell Thine in the Lord Jesus WILLIAM PARKES From my study in Chellaston MAY. 28 1638. THE ROSE AND LILY. Solomons Song 2.1 I am the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys THE summe of mans duty to God consists in the keeping of the ten Commandements which for the brevity of them Moses that man of God calles a Exod 34.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnasereth haddebarim decem verba ten words our Saviour Christ reduceth those ten to two and the Apostle S. Paul reduceth those two to one when he sayes that b Galat. 5.14 love is the fulfilling of the Law But all love is not lovely in us nor likeing to God for as there is the love of God so there is the love of our selves and the love of the world which two last like Pharaohs leane kine c Gen. 41.21 eat up and devour the former and yet are never the better and therefore they must bee pruned away that the former may be grafted in Now Solomon who passed d 2 Chron. 9.22 all the Kings of the earth in wisdome wrote three books the booke of the Proverbs to prune away the love of our selves we must not thinke our selves to be wiser than all others and e Prov. 1.7 despise instruction lest wee prove fooles And the booke of Ecclesiastes to prune away the love of the world because f Eccles 1 4 all is but vanity and vexation of spirit Cum enim duo sunt mala quae vel sola vel maxime militant adversus animum vanus scilicet amor mundi et superfluus sui pesti vtrique duo illi libri obviare noscuntur saith S. Bernard g In Cant. Ser. 1 Whereas there are two evills which either solely or cheifely doe fight against the soule to wit the vaine love of the world and the over-weaning love of our selves those two Bookes yeeld a remedy for each malady Alter sarculo disciplinae prava quaeque in moribus et superflua carnis resecans alter luce rationis in omni gloria mundi fucum vanitatis sagaciter deprehendens veraciterque distinguens à solido veritatis The one by the pruning-hooke of instruction cuts off the rudenesse of manners and the superfluous desires of the flesh the other by the light of reason

posterity the onely Israel that saw him He suffered other nations to sit in darknes and in the shadow of death Then Israel was h Calv. Instit the Lords Son that was his darling others were strangers Israel was received into his care and protection others were left to their owne blindnes Israel was honoured with the presence of God others were excluded from coming nigh him in a word there was a generall darknes over all the Land of Aegypt among the Gentiles but in the Land of Goshen i Exod. 10. among the Israelites there was light But since Christ the mercy of God was no longer inclosed within the narrow confines of Iewry but the glorious light of the Gospell shined through the World Before Christ the Church was a garden inclosed k Sol. Song 4.12 a spring shut up a Fountaine sealed but now she is the Rose of the common Feild The Kingdome of heaven is likened unto a man l Mat 13.24 which sowed good seed in his Field The Church is the Field the seed is the word and the Gospell shall be preached through the World m Mat 26.13 And to this purpose the Church is called Catholique Catholica id est per totum orbem diffusa saith Saint August n Epist 170. in Ps 56. because it is spread through the World And so the Epistles of S. Iames S. Peter S. Iohn and S. Iude are called Catholique because o Willsons Christ Dictionary they are written not to a particuler person as to Timothy c. or to a particular Church as to the Romans c. but either to all the Iewes every where or to all the Christians in the World And to this purpose also the Apostle calls p Heb 12.22 the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conventus vniversalis the generall assembly to shew the Universality of it The Apostle S. Peter affirmes g Acts 10.34 Of a truth that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation hee that feareth him and worketh righteousnes is accepted with him Though the Church bee but one yet it lyes open to all that will come unto it Vnus est Christus per quem omnis gens omnisque lingua fide confessione unita est saith Ignatius r Apud Amand. Polan there is but one Christ and one Church by whom and in whom all nations and tongues are knit together Quid enim est Ecclesia aliud quam congregatio fidelium in unitate fidei advnita saith Oecolampadius ſ Annotat in Chrysit What else is the Church of God but the congregation of faithfull people spread through the World knit together in the vnity of faith the Church is spread every where through the World and admits any persons in the World into her bosome And therefore the Church is not to bee tyed to Rome or any one particuler place Rome may with no better reason be sayd to bee the Catholique Church then the head may bee sayd to be the whole body for if it bee a true Church yet it is but a part of the Church Catholique and not the whole And to say the Catholique Church of Rome is all one as if I should say the catholique Church of Canterbury or of London or a particular universall Church which how harsh it sounds the most simple may easily understand After this I beheld saith S. Iohn t Rev. 7.9 and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe cloathed with white Robes and palmes in their hands The Church is collected out of all nations Aceipit Ecclesia omni tempore volentes credere nemini prorsus occludit se huc festinanti sed liberum licitum est volentibus quolibet tempore nullo impediente ad lucem veritatis adduci saith S. Cyrill v. u In ●●l lib. 5 cap. 60. The Church receaveth all that will beleeve at all times shee is shut to none that come unto her but it is free and lawfull to all that will there is none to hinder them to come to the knowledge of the truth And therefore if thou hast no benefit by this Rose if thou art no member of the Church blame thy selfe for shee is not the inclosed Rose of the Garden but the Rose of the common Field Thirdly the Rose of the Field is for profit as well as pleasure and is healthfull in many medicines so the Church is profitable and healthfull to her members Shee restores health to her members by monitions and admonitions strengthning them that are sound by wholesome Doctrine and restoring them that are sicke by good discipline But if any member be past cure then w Ovid Metamorph Immedicabile vulnus Ense redendū est ne pars sincera trahatur Then shee cuts it off by the spirituall sword of Excommunication Those that are in the barren Wildernes without the pale of the Church are miserable there is mors in olla death is in their pot but those that are within the pale of the Church in that fruitfull Field are happy there is health in her bosome The Church of God is the House of God x 1 Tim. 3.15 the Pillar and ground of truth And shee is very profitable unto her members Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus is a common saying among the fathers without the Church there is no salvation Without the Church they cannot attayne unto the right of adoption whereby they that live faithfully are made actually the children of GOD. They that continue in the Ship of the Church are secure y Doctor Boys though the Sea make a noyse and stormes arise but hee that utterly forsakes the Ship of the Church and swims either in the cockboate of heresies or upon the windy bladders of his owne conceipt shall never touch the land of the living Those that are out of the Church have not the communion and interest of the members with the head and being no part of his body how can they lay claime to his benefits or challenge right to the Kingdome of heaven And to this purpose heaven is called z Acts. 26.18 the inheritance of them which are sanctifyed by faith in CHRIST Nothing now remaines to be spoken of at this time but onely that every one fill his pitcher with this water and carry it home for his owne use which that wee may doe I shall briefly apply First in that the Church is the red Rose by persecution every one should learne patience in his affliction Remember the sufferings of Christ wee doe but sup of that Cup which hee dranke quite off Nihil est quod non aequanimiter tolleretur si passio Christi in memoriam revocetur a St. Gregory There is no affliction so great no crosse so grievous that will not easily be borne by us if wee doe rememberthe sufferings of Christ And therefore Vniversa pro